Sydney FC's Christmas summed up in a single image. Photograph: Steve Christo/Corbis

Petratos comes back to haunt Dad’s Army

According to the irrepressible stats-man Andrew Howe, Sydney FC started the Boxing Day clash against Brisbane Roar with their oldest ever line-up. There they were – Alessandro Del Piero gesticulating at his team-mates, lethargic from too much Christmas panettone and dreaming of greener pastures; Brett Emerton sheepishly shuffling up and down the touchline, as he has made a living out of so far at Sydney FC; Matt Thompson chasing shadows, his sandy blonde hair dripping with the sweat of a defeated man. It was Del Piero who put the home side ahead with a circus trick and a free kick, but Sydney were just pretending to be a football side to humour the 17,662 fans that turned up. Football is a notoriously unfair game, but for Sydney to be ahead early on was downright criminal. As Sydney FC CEO Tony Pignata prepared his next #SydneyIsSkyBlue self-congratulatory tweet, Luke Brattan squeezed a slide-rule pass through to Thomas Broich, and parity was restored.

It was fitting, on an evening where the home side seemed determined to showcase their mediocrity, that former Sydney FC player Dimitri Petratos would score the next three goals for Brisbane. Hair as greasy as ever, the obligatory hieroglyphics inked on his right forearm and with the flavour-saver still firmly ensconced below his bottom lip, Petratos showed all the pizzazz that made him an exciting prospect at Sydney FC, as well as a new level of maturity. His two penalties were both driven nonchalantly into the same spot – the first had to be retaken, but that too had found the same corner of the net. Having been released late last year by Sydney FC on the same day that former football director Gary Cole was forced out to give Frank Farina a freer hand by the board, it was an embarrassing night out for the club. Brisbane just looked to be going through the motions. That Besart Berisha wasn’t even in the squad for the visitors was barely noticed.

Stein steps up

Nobody expected the Friday night match between stragglers Melbourne Heart and Wellington Phoenix to be a thriller. For those who turned up at AAMI Park in Melbourne or tuned in on the couch at home, the main hope was that it wouldn’t prove to be the eye-bleeding affair that many feared in the lead up. It was second-last versus last; crusty Ernie versus jaundiced Johnny; don’t-care-Phoenix versus why-do-you-even-exist-Heart. Under enormous pressure from the home fans, one couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for John Aloisi as David Williams missed a golden opportunity to put Heart ahead on the 20 minute mark. Even at the lowest point of his own A-League goal-drought in 2008, Aloisi would have managed a way to hit the back of the net from there.

It proved to be a game of missed opportunities, and while he regularly butchers a hatful on his own, it was Wellington’s Belgian import Stein Huysegems who scored the winner for the second week running. While Jeremy Brockie was in rare form last season for the Phoenix with 16 goals, with the new season and a new haircut, the last of the mohicans has been more homemade slingshot than hunting bow in front of goal. And with the news that Wellington’s best striker, Paul Ifill, will be out for a long stretch with a ruptured achilles, now is certainly a good time for the big Stein to find some rhythm in front of goal.

The best of times, the blurst of times

Western Sydney Wanderers and Mebourne Victory go about things far more peacefully than certain sections of their support. Photograph: Joe Castro/AAP Image

’Twas a Saturday afternoon in inner-city Melbourne, and blokes in soccer jerseys, freshly worn-in Doc Martens and expensive Burberry caps delivered by Santa were hurling baseball bats and metal bars at each other in Bourke Street, dreaming of the dark alleys of Krakow or the post-industrial gloom of east London. A few bruises, some pyrotechnics and the giddy thrill of what Benedict Anderson called the “imagined community”, the A-League training-wheel thugs soon dispersed to sample the new craft beer at a rooftop bar and whet their appetite at a laneway Greek-Japanese fusion restaurant. Even fighting men need their shiitake souv.

Plastered across the news, the brawl distracted from the match of the round, a 1-1 draw at AAMI Park between the league's two biggest clubs Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers. Of course, violence at the football is nothing new. In times gone by we’ve witnessed sporadic incidents of crowd trouble, often prescribed an ethnic edge. To be fair though, violence between Macedonians and Greeks or Croatians and Serbs at least made some sense. They have a shared history of centuries of conflict, war and territorial dispute to fall back on, not to mention the added injection of crazy that often comes with being part of a marginalised diaspora. Indeed, their clubs often formed the centrepiece of their communities. What are A-League fans fighting over? Have they taken SBS’s ‘hashtag battles’ too seriously? Did the Western Sydney Wanderers ultras outbid the Melbourne Victory guerrillas on that bulk-buy set of Sergio Tacchini trainers on ebay? Perhaps the Victory capo cock-blocked a Wanderer in the conga-line to take a selfie with Tara Rushton? The mind boggles.

Upswing Adelaide

Josep Gombau might have lost the battle with Adelaide Advertiser journo Val Migliaccio, but he may yet win the war. As Adelaide managed just their third win of the season at Hindmarsh Stadium on Sunday afternoon, the ‘In Josep We Trust’ banner was spread across the home end for all to see. The Spaniard certainly has plenty of charisma, or maybe the fans are still emotional about the 4-0 thumping of Central Coast Mariners a fortnight ago. If Adelaide can keep getting results, the shaky start to the season will soon fade to memory. With Bruce Djite now leading the line, Adelaide look to have a little more focus going forward, and three clean sheets in a row suggests the Malik-McKain central defensive pairing might be a keeper. The acid test to see whether Adelaide have turned a corner, however, will come in the new year, as they face Brisbane Roar and Western Sydney Wanderers in succession after hosting Sydney FC. Win those two and Gombau might just be the most popular man in Adelaide.

2013: Hope I die before I get old

It has taken some time to learn, but 2013 highlighted the fact that returning members of the Socceroos Golden Generation™ aren’t an automatic boost for the A-League. Mark Viduka was probably the wisest of the class of 2006, slipping out of the picture after the 2007 Asian Cup and ignoring calls to return home. Who can blame him for preferring to spend time on his yacht off the Dalmatian Coast rather than thrash a ball about a training park in Bundoora or Gosch’s Paddock? In any event, his absence has only strengthened his enigma. Not so Lucas Neill, who dropped in at Sydney FC in February on his farewell tour of Asia before resorting to the classic old man’s gripe – telling the punters and the next generation that they’re doing it wrong. Brett Emerton has regressed on marquee wages at Sydney FC, while Jason Culina retired soon after falling afoul of Frank Farina at the same club.

Only Tony Popovic has boosted his legacy at expansion club Western Sydney Wanderers, becoming one of the hottest managers in Australia in just his first season as coach. But much like at Sydney FC, Melbourne Heart has been a death knell for former Socceroos. Vince Grella managed just a few minutes in January before retiring with injury. Harry Kewell is on breadline wages at the A-League cellar-dwellers, missing penalties that have to be seen to be believed when he’s not riding the pine with injury. Still, few have cut more of a lonely figure than the Golden Generation™ poster-boy, John Aloisi, who has become the natural scapegoat for Melbourne Heart’s woes. After a seemingly interminable losing streak, Aloisi was fired on Sunday morning. Perhaps this is just a bump in the road for the former Socceroos striker? Maybe a clean slate for the new year is just what the young coach needs? As Damien Lovelock sang drolly in the Celibate Rifles 1989 classic ‘Johnny’ - “Johnny was turning into somebody he didn’t want to be.”